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INTRODUCTION
SHORTCOMINGS &
CORRECTIONS
THE CHANGES
DESIGNER &
CONTRACTOR
FINALLY...
FLOORPLANS
SOURCES
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The house's entrance side received the
same Craftsman
treatment as the rear elevation. |
Having gotten the house they wanted at
their price, the Michaelsons are generous with praise for both Drager and
Howe. But Jayne speaks with genuine gratitude for the way the remodeler and his crew conducted themselves on the job. For starters, she says, "they were welcoming to my Mom when
she came around."
Jayne had expected her mother to be upset
at seeing the family home torn up. But Mom turned out to be an enthusiastic spectator, showing up often with cookies
for the carpenters. Instead, says Jayne, "I was the one who was kind of a case for a while.
I grew up not making marks on that wallpaper, and now they were ripping it off."
But Howe and his crew did more than merely navigate these sometimes choppy waters. "Morale was high on this
job," recalls Howe, "because of the emotions that went along with it." Seeing what the house meant
to their clients made the job mean more to them.
During demolition, Howe saved the door jamb where Jayne's parents had charted her growth as a child. He also put
aside a matching jamb for the Michaelsons' daughter and mounted both on a column in the basement playroom.
Jayne is struck by the symmetry – her childhood on one side, her child's on another; an only daughter returning
home to raise her only daughter – and she's not alone. "Now my daughter says when I get old, she's going to
find me a place."
Photography: James Frederick
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